Thou shall take a stand against ever increasing efforts to titillate ...

“One cannot be prudent without being a bit prudish...”

I was on a recent flight not too long ago and flipped open a women’s fitness magazine I had bought to help me pass the time in the air. I thought I might get some tips on my training or get inspired to continue eating better (as my husband and I have been trying to do for well over a month now).

As I started to flip through I realized that some of the articles were a little more risque than I seemed to remember from prior perusals of fitness magazines...

“Train yourself to a better sex life.”

All of a sudden, I glance over at a 85 or so year old woman sitting next me. She’s clearly seen the headline and is not amused. I suddenly feel my face begin to flush with embarrassment and I quickly turn the page. 

“99 ways to increase your stamina in the bedroom.”

Another glance in grandma’s direction has of course confirmed that yet again she is disapproving of my reading selection.

I flip the magazine to the cover as if to show grandma that I have not purchased “Play Girl” magazine or even a freaking “Cosmopolitan.” This was what for all intent and purposes appeared to be a harmless fitness magazine.

Grandma didn’t even look up this time. “Great,” I thought, sarcastically.

I tucked the fitness back into my bag and opened what I was sure to be safer in flight reading material, Working Mom’s Magazine. The first article I turn to again has the heat creeping to my cheeks:

“Rocking his world, in and out of the boardroom.”

“What???” I think to myself. 

I used to buy this magazine several years ago because I loved the tips on balancing work and family, questions and answers about dealing with stress, and all the other non-titillating, but nonetheless interesting, topics that us working moms have to deal with on a day to day basis.

I counted seven other articles in the magazine that I found truly bizarre, the most noteworthy being “Top 10 Ways to Win that Corner Office.” Seems harmless, right??? Not if you read number 5. As the Sugarland song goes, “remember what your knees are for,” ladies. GEEZ!

To be honest, number 5 was actually encouraging you to sex up your style, and therefore, your confidence level. But, still, call me crazy, but I’d like to think my daughters won’t have to even consider “sexing themselves up” for anything that involves a career promotion.

Maybe I’m naive. Yes, I’m sure I am, but I can’t help but wonder what happened to the good ole’ days when Working Mom’s Magazine was actually about “working” and being a “mom?” Now, I have to be a sexy working mom??? Lord, it’s hard enough to juggle the balls I have in the air...

My magazine selection, of course, is just a tiny microcosm of the “real issue.” The bigger issue is society’s never-ending need to titillate. I just don’t understand it.

Case in point: How many of you have found yourselves in a PG-13 movie with your kids recently and, after hearing some harsh expletive or some fairly intense sex scene thought “this is PG-13???”

In fact, it goes beyond the movies...I was just watching a TV show on USA network with my children when all of a sudden I found myself allowing the pasta water to boil over in the kitchen as I race into the TV room screaming,  “close your eyes, close your eyes!!!!” 

Really? At home??...on TV??? Come on, people...

Film-maker, Michael Medved, has been very openly critical of Hollywood’s insistence on cranking out so many “R” rated movies:

“When the typical “PG” film generates nearly three times the revenue of the typical “R” bloodbath or shocker, then the industry’s insistence on cranking out more than four times as many “R” titles must be seen as an irrational and irresponsible habit.”

But, yet, they do. Maybe they think they are more artsy...maybe they they think they are more edgy...who knows, but you can’t argue with Medved’s conclusion that people ultimately want more PG movies. Yet, they aren’t getting made nearly on the same scale as their “R” counterparts.

Is the same true for magazines? I don’t know but I can’t be alone in my desire for some wholesome in-flight reading, can I? Can I be the only one who thinks the things discussed in “Seventeen” magazine are things I wouldn’t necessary want my daughters doing when they are 27, much less 17. 

So, feel free to call me a prude. I’m sure I’ve been called worse. But the truth of the matter is, I like certain “R” rated movies and certainly have been known to have a bit of a potty mouth at times. But it’s the pervasiveness of the gratuitous titillation that has just gotten out of control.

There is a market for titillation. I get that. But when the entertainment industry (be it movie-makers or magazine editors, or whoever) starts to believe that we cannot be entertained without titillation, I think that’s where the problem lies. That is when I believe we start being demeaned. And that, friends, is when I have had enough...

-Claudia